The Nobel laureate had a telephonic conversation with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, during which he offered to help the state government in fighting the outbreak.

Kolkata: Nobel laureate Abhjit Binayak Banerjee has offered to help the West Bengal government in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic by generating awareness on the disease through social messaging platforms.

According to sources, the Nobel laureate on Saturday had a telephonic conversation with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, during which he offered to help the state government in fighting the outbreak.

"There is so much to do. We want to work with them (state government) on effective social messaging," he told PTI, when asked how he would want to go about it.

In October 2018, Indian-American economist Banerjee, his wife Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer jointly won the Nobel "for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty."

West Bengal so far has reported 18 cases of COVID-19. Of them, one died earlier this week.